What Good is a 1,000 Core Processor Anyway?

If money wasn’t an option, we’d all opt for a little more processing power in our computers. But what would you do for a 1,000 CPU upgrade? Most importantly, what would you do with it? At the University of California, researchers have designed the KiloCore, a core processor with 1,000 processors, and it lives up to its name being a heavy hitter. But do you need it, and what’s it actually capable of?

Independent Processors and Direct Transmissions

Imagine a giant office. When a handful of tasks are handed down by management, it’s up to the employees to get them done as fast and efficiently as possible. If each employee needs to collaborate with nine other employees to accomplish their task, then only one task is being accomplished per ten people, and your pool of 100 employees has the power of completing only ten tasks a day. However, if each of those employees could complete a task on their own, then you have a force to be reckoned with.

That’s what processors are – employees – and the 1,000 core processor has an office full of 1,000 employees. To make it better, rather than making each of those employees go to the project board and see what needs done, the processor will directly transmit information among the other processors, so each gets what it needs just as it needs it without the extra time. The downside to this is programmers, much like management, need to be able to divide up their software and programs so that they’re capable of being handled as individual parts rather than a whole – otherwise the 1,000 core processor is still being forced to divide up its work for groups of ten.

Obviously, More Processing Power

However, even with the work still being shared among multiple processors, it doesn’t subtract from the fact that the core processor’s direct transmissions make it possible for the several-man team to receive what they need immediately, leading to faster results. To make it even better, with its extreme number outweighing the normal CPU, it does have more resources at its disposal to afford that lag, leading it to fulfill its intended purpose – being faster and more efficient.

Power Efficient

Speaking of efficient, the processor offers all its own added speed plus the power saving advantages and modular solutions other processors do. Whenever certain processors are not in use, it will shut them off until they’re needed, allowing you to use only the most necessary amount of power. This means it can run on as little as AA battery; yet when you need that extra punch, it’s still capable of ramping up that additional power to get the job done.

What Does This Mean For You?

While all this may seem like a perfect dream, inspiring you to dump your laptop and run out for the latest and greatest, this core processor’s advantages don’t come for at-home use. If you’re looking to make your web surfing even better or get the most stellar experience possible with online gaming, you’ll have to wait for the next generation of this technology, because one flaw remains: the programs and software for internet surfing, gaming, or even switching from one tab to another doesn’t rely on your core processor – it depends on the software itself.

In essence, those programs are designed to be one bulk project handed to a team of employees, and have to be handled by the entire team. In order for the everyday computer user to take advantage of this, programmers and designers must tailor their creations to be more meticulous and intricate, so tiny portions of it can be delegated across all 1,000 processors.

When it comes to encryption or decryption, video processing, or data science analysis, these things are designed to be intricate and broken into several small puzzle pieces. This level of independent tasks allows the core to do exactly what it was intended to do – allocate the numerous tasks to the numerous processors, and let them each do their work as fast as they can.

For making this technology breakthrough ready to use at home, we have to look to our software and program designers for the change.